


Unexpected

by Tezca



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Doctor Who Fusion, Elsewhere Fic, Gen, Round Robin, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 15:31:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11947215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tezca/pseuds/Tezca
Summary: Fired from his job and about to be divorced, Nick Scheving helps save the world with a Time Lord unlike the Doctor.





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> This was pretty much the result of a round robin fic deal on Alcoholiday BBS(bulletin board system) written by lobo, Zero Reader(also the sysop of Alcholiday BBS) and me. I ended up finishing the story but lobo and Zero Reader did the early parts of the fic. Edited it for typos and I did expanded a bit on a paragraph that I wrote originally.

Nick was facing a crossroads in his career and life. Recently separated and more recently laid-off from the media job he'd held for nearly a decade, there wasn't much left for him to do but seek solace at the bottom of a bottle of J&B whiskey and daydream about the reggae band he'd never started with his college buddies.

He'd search the job boards tomorrow. For now, he took solace in a hip-pocket flask of booze and an unobstructed view of the December night sky. His buddy Steve, being a serious amateur astronomer, had a man-cave nestled back in a clearing 45 minutes from the capital city. Steve was vacationing abroad, and while he was gone, allowed Nick usage of the observatory.

That worked out well, since Nick's wife had recently kicked him out of their McMansion in the suburbs.

Yep. He was hitting rock bottom. Drunk. Unemployed. Broke. Divorce pending. But why worry about such trivial matters? He had a good buzz and the Milky Way sprawled across the night sky like chunky lines of good coke on the surface of a mirror. He reclined in the cold night air and lit a cigarette.

Nick thought of his wife Lucy as he was want to do every time the alcohol took over the keyboard in his head. The words would type and impress themselves on the Nick's brow as if by an invisible typist and they were good.

Nick liked to remember certain marital moments and the invisible typist helped him out in providing those. At such moments, he and his typist would have a temporary chuckle at his wife's expense.

"I think to have (and wear) that type of hair, Lucy, one must acquire a gun permit cause that hair type classifies as an assault weapon at some point". He fondly remembered Lucy's 'Lion hair' and almost spat a huge chunk of lungs while this particular scene played out in his head. Those good old happy terrible bad days, he murmured to himself. But now, the invisible typist gone, Nick shuffled in the chair once more, positioning himself in front of the lens.

'The View to The Otherworlds', he thought, looking at the telescope while squinting at the mechanism as if it was some oriental cat worth of a close up study. Downing the cigarette, Nick pressed his eye on the cold telescope and peeped at the Universe.

And he couldn't see a damned thing.

The telescope in front of him was unbelievably complex: It's tube was made of a giant cylinder of carbon fiber. Its primary mirror, a hand-ground affair, was something around 20 inches wide. A giant lens cap crowned the top of the scope and only then did Nick realize there wasn't even an eyepiece mounted. Just a black cap to keep dust out.

The scope was one of these $20,000 jobs. Handmade by his geek friend. Through a veil of alcohol and THC resin, Nick recalled the last "star party" he'd attended here. It was a few months back. All that space nerd talk of "right ascension" and "azimuthal" nonsense. The perverse comparisons of telescope mounts ("What you really want is a Dobsonian Jim, this sonofabitch is a light bucket" ... "No Ray, I think the German EQ is the way to go..."). Through the field they come and go, talking of Galileo.

Fuck this. The scope wasn't going to be figured out tonight. Hell, he seemed to recall the thing had to be controlled by a computer anyway. Yes, that was it. His buddy spent long nights spent in front of a computer slewing the scope by robot control, and automatically shooting dozens of digital night sky images. Even in this cathedral of nature, the connection to life was best experienced between the gauze of ones and zeros, with Facebook open on one screen and digital satellite TV on another.

Now what? Nick turned his attention to a little silvery laptop on the small desk to his right. He noticed the blinking light on some cable or something in a mass of cables protruding to and fro behind the machine, like infernal tentacles of the Kraken enveloping the poor brig in the lonely waters around the coast of Greenland.

The scope was probably connected all this time, his friend likely never even turned off the damn thing. Pulling out another cigarette from his pocket, Nick flipped the laptop screen and with a low hum, the machine sprang to light. In less time than it took Nick to light up his cigarette, the interface of the 'star-gazing software' was already computing, blinking, humming and drumming ones and zeros across the darkness, until it finally pulled up a several distinct windows on screen.

Nick was not unnecessarily technologically inclined but he knew his way around e-mail and if really needed, he knew how to decline 'Joespammer.org' asking for his friendly consideration on Facebook. The software did not look too crazy, all things considered. It seemed to rely on a couple of basic options, the scope controls with aperture settings and the recording data was the most interesting part, the rest was as esoteric to Nick as Lucy's hair was in contrast to the natural world.

The thought of the "lion mane" once again ran through Nick's head. He was startled from his reverie by the sound of a mechanical whirring outside. Apparently alien robots from Andromeda were about to come crashing into the observatory and put him out of his misery.

Cautiously, Nick ascended to the observation deck to investigate the sound. Of course -- the telescope, now under computer control, was angling itself out of its cradle and rotating around, its servos whirring cheerfully. As it aimed itself towards the southern sky, Nick reached up and removed the giant lens cap carefully. The scope eventually stopped, aimed at a dark patch of sky with few stars. No doubt some deep sky object was its target.

Back in the warm confines of the observatory, photos were periodically flashing up on the screen of the computer. Nick shrugged. The images looked blank. He knew something of photography though, and realized that when dozens of these seemingly blank photos were combined, they often yielded faint images of objects in space. Stack enough of these together, and you end up with an image of the Horse's Ass Nebula, or the One-Eyed Cat Quasar or some such foolishness. Oh well, he'd let the program run. Maybe the Naked Woman Magellanic Cloud would come to light.

Tap-tap tapping the armchair made him a bit fidgety and Nick started shuffling in his comfy chair while dark pictures ran around the screen. Nothing there but darkness. He wanted to talk some more with the silent typist but the alcohol was stealing away quietly from his system, and Nick was unable to conjure his friend in solitude.

The poisoned, retchy taste in the mouth cavity was alarmingly noxious and Nick threw away the unfinished cigarette. He needed a drink to wash off the tar aftertaste, anything but water though. Looking around the room, he spotted a half filled bottle of Southern Comfort on the top shelf in the corner. It was nicely glowing amber, wedged between some odd looking statues (of Hindu origin was his first thought) and a messy stack of papers on top of some worn-out books.

'Somebody Up There Likes Me'..Nick whispered with a happy gusto, thinking just how great is the Universal intervention of 'Goddess Chance', to provide exactly the needed cure to his malady at exactly the right time. Nick felt religious as he darted across the room in order to grab the 'Grail of the Happy Hour from Elysian Fields'.

"Southern Comfort" -- Nick seemed to recall a really cool musician from out in L.A. or somewhere did a raucous rave-up of the same name. He took a pull from the bottle and the sickly-sweet liqueur left a burning trail that warmed his esophagus and left a campfire-like glow within the deepest nodes of his intestinal tract.

Dawn would be coming in a few more hours, then back to reality. The meetings with lawyers, separation agreements, the endless job searches that resulted in few call-backs. He seriously considered getting "the band" back together, but the soon-to-be-ex wasn't going to let him back in the house to get his old Stratocaster and amp. His days as the rhythm guitarist and singer of the failed skiffle-punk band, "Mullet Toupee" were long past. Hell, it'd been 20 years since he played a note. "The Band" as it existed now were old 40-something dudes with sets of children, manicured beards, and minivans living in a Matrix-like cul-de-sac bliss. Yeah that wasn't a career option.

Nick was pondering his future career selling large appliances at a big box store when the computer bleeped. An image appeared briefly, covered by a window containing statistics: Dark frames: 20, Light frames: 80, Bias frames: 5\. Total exposure time: 40 minutes ... and a bunch of other gibberish that was unfit to read with a mind lubricated by alcohol. He clicked off the window of stats to reveal the stunning sight below it.

What he saw on the screen made him utter a silent scream which in turn pushed the alcohol through his nose and the rest lodged in his throat so painfully that Nick gasped for air. He got up, forced his head upward, trying to push the damn liquid down the drain. He gagged, barfed, tried to spit it all out to no avail. He was choking and his diaphragm burned and tore from the inside. He flapped his hands and beat his chest like one possessed but the liquid still lingered inside his throat like a brick. He wanted to breathe but could not do so, the alcohol kept pushing down then up again, like a stormy sea, leaving in its wake, a few maladjusted belches here and there. At last, the worm-like wiggling of Nick's body gave that final push to the inner muscles of his throat and the damned liquid subsided, taking the panic away with it, down to the bottom.

He could breathe again, tears in his eyes from all the effort it took to extricate himself from death were flowing down his cheeks. For a moment, Nick forgot what was the reason for his dramatic dance he just performed until the gruesome memory came back to him, slowly reminding him of the horror he saw just a few moments ago. Nick turned apprehensively to the screen to face the picture again and possibly to ascertain his sanity but...there was nothing on screen! He remembered that in his twisting and turning he had hit the keyboard with his elbow. That must have somehow turned off the picture feed! Although still unsure whether he wanted to see *it* again, the sheer terror beckoned him to do so and Nick started frantically to hit the keys in order to bring back the picture of the cosmic nightmare one more time.

The picture finally came into view a few seconds later, a period of time that felt longer than it should have. The picture was still unsettling to see, something Nick felt like it was going to be seared into his memories for the rest of his life. Even after a good look the second time around, he still wasn't sure what kind of cosmic horror it is. Of course it reminded him of the Elder Gods of Lovecraftian lore, namely Cthulu. But it didn't exactly look like him, for one thing there wasn't any tentacles on anything on his face.

Rather the cosmic horror looked like it was a sentient shadow in a humanoid form. It looked like as if it was made from the depths of a black hole, a shade so dark, so cold that even though it was just a pic on a computer screen, he felt like it would still bring nightmares beyond what mere mortals can comprehend. Cthulu's more evil cousin(for lack of anything to describe the horror off the top of his head) also looked like it had double sets of horns on its head, red eyes, and razor sharp teeth.

Nick finally turned off the computer after what felt like hours when it has only been five minutes tops. Was this being the reason behind the aliens robots from Andromeda landing? Was this the start of an alien invasion? The thought made terrifyingly sense given everything that happened. And he got the feeling the result of all this wasn't going to end well for Earth and everything really on it, not just humanity. That's the gut feeling he got right now.

With that realization, Nick grabbed his laptop and took off towards the Jump Room, a bar run by a renegade Time Lord called the Colonel.

With a quick pace Nick ran downstairs, laptop in his hands. At the very landing, he missed the step and fell on his right knee, bruising it badly, while laptop crashed on the stairs below. Horrified, Nick picked it up and checked the screen. It started glowing, the machine was built to sustain a drunken man's fall, Nick realized with relief.

Outside was quiet and pitch black darkness, the contour of the car parked nearby was highlighted by a humming lamp on the porch. Nick fumbled his pockets for the keys but could not find them. He quickly turned around and went back inside, thinking that they must have fallen out when he fell. Searching the staircase clean, he failed to see any signs of the keys and was about to go back upstairs when he remembered that the keys were left in the car.

A slap on the forehead and a low chuckle reminded him that he was still under the influence somewhat and that panic will only slow him down now when he needs to be as clear headed as possible. Cursing the circumstances, he rushed to the car, slammed the door and turned on the ignition.

Nothing.

He squeezed the wheel hard and tried again, listening to the sound of the engine. The engine in turn coughed and spluttered and died. Nick groaned loudly and banged his head repeatedly against the wheel. He could not believe his bad luck.

All of a sudden, he heard a sound, as if something moved outside, slowly but distinctly. He raised his head and looked forward into the nearby thicket, he imagined that he saw two red eyes, gleaming in the darkness.

Nick sat there frozen in fear for a minute or two, one hand still on the wheel and the other on the key. He looked at the thicket even after the red eyes disappeared as quickly as it came, hoping that wasn't Cthulu's more evil cousin that he’d just saw. If that was the case then Earth could possibly be more on its way to be more screwed up than he thought which is why he needs to go see the Colonel as soon as possible.

Not two minutes later and he got a sudden chill of fear running up his body as he got his confirmation. He felt like they would've have more time to come up with a plan if said cosmic horror wasn't on Earth already. But that wasn't the case and he can only hope that they still have some silver chance of hope of saving the planet.

So after a minute of being in a frighten state, he sobered up as much as he could while still being in a somewhat intoxicated state to remember what he was doing. With a new sense of adrenaline, he turned the key and hoped the third time's the charm. Alas it wasn't and Nick swore aloud, couldn't the universe give him a little break in this situation?

Hopefully his luck will change on the fourth try as he revved it up again, but just as he did he suddenly heard the door opening a weight on the seat next to him. It was a tall man with dark and wild curly hair(sideburns too) underneath a feathered cowboy hat. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at the keyhole which seemed to fix his car problem.

"Hello I'm the Colonel and I'll explain on the way, but you should drive now!"

It took him a second(or two or three) for his mind to process the sudden instruction as well as the fact that there is someone in the passenger seat. Among the questions that was now buzzing in his head was how did he get the car to work with something that emitted a blue light and made a whirring kind of noise? Doesn't really matter right now he figured, he should just be glad and thankful to the universe above for giving him a break. Now he doesn't have to worry about facing death by the cosmic horror.

His mind was still a bit addled at what just happened but the urgent tone of the Colonel's voice and the fact that he didn't want to be some alien's dinner got Nick to quickly get his foot to slam down on the gas pedal and getting the heck out of there. He just hoped he wasn't drunk enough to make any huge driving mistakes. Which while he felt like he wasn't that drunk enough, he sure still felt like he was going to make some horrible mistake. Especially with the fact that he was going pretty much above the speed limit.

"So, wait did you say your name was the Colonel?"

Yeah, what's your name?" The Colonel replied and Nick let out a soft sign of relief he didn"t realized was there. Another little break the universe has given him.

"Uh.. Nick, Nick Scheving." Nick answered, taking a glance at the Colonel before looking back onto the road only to suddenly see them about to plow into an oncoming car. Luckily his reflexes was fast enough to slam on the brakes while swerving right then left, coming to an abrupt stop by the sidewalk.

Of course it would be like him to speak to soon at times and have the universe go right back to screwing him over. At times at least anyways. Nick then took a few breaths to calm down and reel back on what happened as his heart pounded in his chest for a few seconds. Luckily they didn't get to banged up, and Nick took a moment to cuss out the other driver before looking over to the Colonel.

"Crap sorry about that man."

"It's alright, we'll fix this shit a lot quicker at my Tardis anyways." He said as he suddenly opens the door and got out. Nick felt a renewed sense of confusion in his mind, just another thing to add to his mental list of questions. Not that it was terribly long, mostly just about what was going on? Why did Cthulu's more evil cousin seemingly choose Earth to enact whatever it's plan was? That and his initial theories of why they were being invaded. Maybe the robots and entity just saw Earth as an easy target.

"Wait whats a Tardis?"

"You'll see, come on!" The Colonel instructed before he took while he still blanked out on things, he got out and quickly followed. He couldn't really say no anyways to helping save the world from intergalactic hellish doom anyways. What would his soon to be ex wife think of that? Probably Be jealous a part of him spitefully thought. Well maybe more disbelief that he was a part of it but still.

Nick couldn't help but daydream for a few short seconds as he ran after the Colonel, imagining the look on her face as he smiled in satisfaction. The two ran down two blocks and while Nick might've not been the best in shape with your average build of a young man in his 30's, he wasn't out of shape either. He can thank track team and basketball in high school for giving him enough leg muscle and stamina to keep up with the Colonel going at what felt like full blast down the sidewalk. He did have to catch his breath for a moment when they finally arrived in front of what appeared to be a car, specifically a Trans Ams and a sweet one at that.

He took one look at the car getting confused once again, maybe the Tardis was just a nickname for it, like how some car owners would do when they get too attached to them. He can understand that, but how would he and the Colonel fix this mess with this as oppose to his car? Only thing he can think of is probably faster speed to get out of danger compared to his sorry excuse of a car.

He was about to speak up and ask when he saw the Colonel open the door before moving the passenger seat back to reveal a set of stairs going down from the floor of the car. Nick peered down was dumbfounded beyond words to say the least when he saw what looked liked an entire room at the bottom, a big one at that too. He then took a quick glance underneath the car as he heard the Colonel start to go down the steps. Didn't look like there wasn't anything underneath. How the heck did he manage to fit all of that in one small car? His mind went blank at trying to come up with a possible explanation.

Still at a loss of words for the time being Nick quickly followed after down the steps, taking in the enormity of the room as he looked around. He can hear the seat above closing the entrance to the outside world but it didn't jar him out of his state of amazement. Seriously how did the Colonel managed to pull of what should be an impossible feat? Granted this did proved the rumors true, he was some kind of alien but still. One thing Lucy rightfully claimed it seems apparently in one of her drunken state of mind one time they've gone out drinking.

It was only when he reached the end of the stairs when he finally got his brain working enough to form words, "I might've failed science once in high school, but it's...how? It's bigger down here." Nick questioned.

"Time Lord tech. I'm from a planet called Gallifrey," The Colonel answered as he turned on the screen he had in his console area that he used to keep track of what was happening in the area, "I'm considered a renegade because I left, refused to adhere to the stupid and corrupt as hell government back home. Damn glad I left to be honest." The Colonel finished with a chuckle.

"And you picked Earth?" Nick teased with a short but casual laugh, "We got more corrupted politicians only caring about themselves and their interests than those that don't so no offense but I gotta question your decision haha."

Thankfully to Nick, he found that funny enough to laugh. This whole mission to save the Earth would then on would’ve felt somewhat awkward to him if he hadn’t, "No worries.trust me when I say that most of those kind of folks here are easier to deal with."

The two stood in silence as they watched the screen for the next 30 seconds. Nick assumed the screen was for tracking down the cosmic horror and the robots though nothing appeared at the moment. At least the air between them was comfortable and not awkward. He noticed that the Colonel was looking semi intently at the screen like he was deep in thought. Hopefully he has some kinda plan as he certainly doesn't.

"Can I be honest with you Nick?" The Colonel suddenly asked, facing Nick with a sincere tone.

"Oh yeah sure, go ahead."

I don't feel like I'm the best choice for this."

"You don't?" Nick can get what he was saying, a part of him still can't Believe that he of all people was helping keep Earth out of harm's way. He would've guessed there were other more qualified people then some soon to be single, unemployed idiot who doesn't have his own place yet. But he is still willing to help because after all he does live on this planet so that should count for something.

The Colonel took a weary sigh and Nick thought he heard a tinge of annoyance as he spoke, "This is something the Doctor would be better suited for. He runs into this kind of shit a lot."

"The Doctor another alien?" Nick asked for clarification.

"Yeah, same race as me. We never really met though."

"Oh. Might've heard mentions of him before online or on the news sometimes," Nick shrugged, "Most of the time from my ex. If we're still being honest I didn't really put too much into whether or not aliens existed, but I did always found space interesting enough."

"The Colonel gave him a nod, "It's cool."

"Do you like the Doctor? Just umm, sounded like you got annoyed there a bit." Nick asked after a pause in the conversation.

"I do, don't get me wrong. I just wish he would've answered my message asking for help."

"Maybe he's busy preventing some other threat?"

"He could be yeah, it's just...ugh does he not realize how dangerous of a situation we're in?! I thought I made myself pretty fucking clear!"

"Just how much danger are we in exactly?" Nick felt a sort of renewed dread in the pit of his stomach, how can this whole invasion thing get any more disturbing and terrifying?

"The cosmic horror that you saw earlier is from a race of sentient shadow beings that are basically cousins of the Vashta Nerada. Only they don't just immediately eat up any organic thing they come across, no they wait until complete darkness so they can absorb all the shadows of the night to grow to 20 feet tall before eating everything organic! There is a reason they are nicknamed the Shadow Demons Nick."

The Colonel took a calming breath while Nick reeled in the new information, he wanted to ask what or who exactly was the Vashta Nerada but felt like perhaps he could just ask later. He took a glance at his smartphone to check the time, hopefully they would have a few hours of daylight left to come up with a half decent plan at the least.

"It's 3 in the afternoon if that helps."

"Yeah, the sun doesn't start setting until around 8:30 so we got some time."

"Ok." Nick nodded, feeling the harrowing gravity of the situation. Nothing really in his life trained him for this. All he got to go on was his knowledge of how to do his former media job and he was definitely sure that would be laughably ineffective against a shadow demon from outer space, "I'm feeling like I'm not the best person for this." Nick said with a casual laugh.

"So that makes both of us then," The Colonel laughed in response before putting on a little more confident voice when he continued. He truthfully felt he wasn’t the best experienced Time Lord of them all to defeat some baddie somewhere in time and space 24/7. That was more the Doctor’s primary job. But that sure as hell didn’t mean he wasn’t going to protect the Earth if needed. When it comes down to it, the Colonel will do what it take to protect his adopted beloved homeplanet, "But I think I may have an idea, I'm just not sure if it'll work."

"Better than nothing at least, what is it?"

"Well based on what I can gather, they don't seem to do too well in natural light. All they can do in it is go around scaring the crap out of everyone and eat up small enough animals. So maybe a good strong artificial light will be enough to destroy it."

"That is certainly worth a shot, I don't really have any better ideas."

"Yeah, definitely is. We just have to find like a big enough light or something, like a spotlight."

"Or stadium lights," Nick added. At least a plan was cooking up between the two of them so he felt a bit more at ease. He would just have to hope that this actually works and it helps that the Colonel looks like he has enough confidence that it might. That was good enough for him.

It was now that Nick suddenly remembered about the other problem alongside the main one, what the heck are they going to do about the robots? They would also have to be dealt with he imagined, "What are we going to do about the robots that landed a while ago?"

"Oh yeah well, thankfully that'll be easy enough. These are the kind of robots made that can be short circuited by a high pitched sound," The Colonel explained, truthfully he almost forgot about them as he focused on the main cosmic horror problem. Nick's question had reminded him of that little detail. He felt a bit embarrassed inside for almost forgetting and probably showed a bit when he talked.

Now comes the dilemma, do they go and take care of the robots first or the shadow demon? It didn't take too long for the Colonel to decide after checking his computer for a minute or two, "Ok we should take care of the cosmic horror first." He announced as he faced Nick.

"So the robots ain't that dangerous?" Nick wondered and the Colonel shook his head a bit.

"More likely than not, they are designed to make people here think they are dangerous. The cosmic horror might've sent them first as a red herring, get everyone freaked out as shit and during the chaos when nighttime hits, he'll do his thing and when morning comes people will quick to blame the destruction and deaths on the robots for the time being until..."

"It's too late," Nick finished and the Colonel nodded gravely. Well that was that then, they will deal with the bigger problem first so next thing they did was figure out where to get a spotlight.

"I can't think of anyplace here to go buy one," Nick stated after 5 minutes of thinking.

"Well maybe I already have the stuff to make a makeshift one," The Colonel said. They could go and search for places to buy one but if then how are they going to pay for it? Well the Colonel does have the money from the bar he runs, but he wasn't sure if that would be enough. Besides time was of the essence here and both didn't really want to waste a minute.

The Colonel beckoned Nick to follow him once more and the two went out of the main console room into a corridor connected to others, "I still wish the Doctor would answer, even if it's a flat out "sorry can't busy."

"I understand, but hey we have a plan at least right? That's gotta be something, I mean we aren't running around like idiots wondering what the hell are we going to do?" Nick pointed out with a laugh at the end followed with a casual smile.

"True, but compared to him I'm just a guy running a bar who happens to come from the same planet as him."

"On the other hand I'm sure the Doctor would appreciate you protecting the Earth on the rare times I assume when he can't be here."

“Yeah, I just normally don't run into this kinda thing... but don't get me wrong I will protect Earth and humanity. I consider Earth my home.”

"I getcha. How long have you been here?"

"Long time, few centuries at least. Time Lords have a way longer lifespan and we have these things called incarnations that we can regenerate into and we have 12 of those. And it was only a short time after graduating from the Academy that I decided screw it, I'm gonna steal a Tardis and leave."

"Haha well that would explain how you lived that long and still look young as me." Nick lightly laughs.

"Yeah, and this is only my first incarnation." The Colonel added as they arrive at a room filled with various junk. Nick noticed it was a pretty big room and had various things he could recognize as being from Earth among others where he doesn't have a clue of what they are or what they do.

The two quickly got to work with the Colonel telling Nick what to look for and he was trying his best, he certainly didn't want to be asking what if "this is it" every two seconds. After 10 minutes of looking around the junk(The Colonel admitted he usually keeps it semi messy), he spotted a big enough round metal container with a glass screen on it and took it out to show him.

"This could work as a makeshift spotlight."

"Yeah that would, I forgot I had something like that. It was part of some telescope I found with a friend in the future."

"The future?"

"Yeah, I think I forgot to explain that part sorry," The Colonel apologetically realized as he made his way over to where Nick was standing, "A Tardis is basically a time traveling spaceship. It can go anywhere in time or space. I'll have to prove it afterwards." He added with a small laugh before getting a tool out to pop the glass out.

"And I'll save being bewildered by that until then too," Nick repaid the laugh as they got to work. Luckily it didn't take as long as it could have to put together a decent enough working spotlight, only a couple of hours. Sure they both deep down would've felt better about their chances had they got it done earlier, but they also didn't want to half ass anything either. They only got one good chance to nip this alien monster in the bud before becoming a bigger problem.

The two wheeled out the spotlight to the console room before they planned the next move. Which was of course how the hell are they going to find and lure the horror entity directly into the path of the spotlight?

Leaning on the spotlight, the Colonel tried to think of a way to go about with luring, but was coming up short.

"I'm blanking out on how to lure him out," He admitted as he went to his computer screen to check if it got any whereabouts of the cosmic horror's location. Nick followed and stood behind him, the screen showing a map of the city with some differently colored dots he assumed represented the robots and the cosmic horror. The purple one he reckoned was the Tardis.

"Ok assuming the cosmic horror doesn't suddenly move, he's near the Shady Motherboard...great, that's really great," The Colonel deadpanned on the last part while he sighed, not sounding to pleased.

"Oh I've been there before. Stopped going though a while back."

"Cause of that one drunken guy?"

"Yeah." Nick sighed as well, sympathizing with the Colonel. They both knew all too well of the drunken regular there that always liked to tackle people down and take something of theirs. It was always a crapshoot as well trying to predict whether he'll tackle you or not.

"Figured."

"Was a shame though, I did like the beers there."

"Same. But nothing beats the kind at my bar ha," The Colonel joked in a mock pretentious voice before he smiled lightly.

"Ha yeah."

"Well hopefully we won't run into him," The Colonel started as he set up the console to quickly get to the location, "The last time I went there he tackled me and tried to steal my sonic screwdriver, bad move. Here's a lesson Nick don't piss off a Time Lord." He said as he faced him and activated the Tardis to arrive at a grassy field outside of the city.

"Got it." Nick nodded as he looked at the screen again then at his new friend. "So are we going try and get him there or.."

"Nah, I was thinking lure him out to somewhere a bit away from town. Less of a hassle to take our weapon of choice out and we want to do this with as minimal collateral damage of any kind as possible."

"Right. How are we gonna get it up the stairs then?"

"I'll just change the appearance so it'll have a door."

"Oh ok, well that works." Nick replied. There was definitely a feeling to be had that there was a lot more to the universe then what he learned from his friend. Obvious to. Besides the Colonel didn't seem too bothered by what must sound like stupid questions to him anyways. Then again he probably knows that a guy like him wouldn't know what a Tardis is much less how it works.

"I have no clue how we can lure him out," The Colonel said matter of factly after about 5 minutes of thinking. Nick echoed the same for him as he looked at some of the neat music and movie related posters on the wall around the room.

"I man have an idea but it's crazy and it might be a long shot," The Colonel said after a minute more of silence between the two, "Only because it rides on the assumption that the cosmic horror has it out for the Doctor."

"Well we probably don't have any time to come up with a better plan," Nick pointed out and the Colonel nodded in agreement, "Do other aliens usually have it out for him?"

"Mostly the bad ones that seek out harm to people and complete power in one way or another. There is a good chance this alien shadow demon does, but there's an equal chance that this plan could fail epically. However like you said we don't have much time to think of a better one. My idea is one of us dresses up as the Doctor and basically lures him into the path of the light while the other wait for the signal to turn on the light."

15 minutes later the two decided that it would be the Colonel that will dress up as the Doctor while Nick manned the spotlight. The Tardis since then been changed to resemble the blue box look of the Doctor's Tardis. The Colonel thought it would help trick the entity into thinking he was the Doctor rather than another renegade Time Lord(plus they needed to get the light out easily).

"How do I look?" The Colonel asked with a bit of an excited smile, he was dressed up with a long brown jacket and hat to match topped with an overly long scarf.

"I wouldn't know what the Doctor looks like so I can't tell if it's accurate." Nick truthfully said with a laugh.

"Well I'm dressed up as one of his earlier incarnations, I think it was his fourth. Best I can do on short notice, but I figure with my hair looking like this one in particular, well hopefully it's enough."

Nick shrugged, "It's good enough for me."

"Feels like I half assed it though but I don't give a fuck at this point." The two casually laughed before taking the spotlight out to a good place not far from the Colonel's Tardis. After getting it ready, the two looked back at the spaceship and took a minute to prepare themselves for this.

"I think the Doctor would be more annoyed if he'd seen how I did with the outside look of the Tardis."

"You think so?"

"Yep, all I had to go one was blue police box since that's what I remember reading online accounts. There might've been pictures but I don't remember

"If he does say anything about it just tell him it's payback for not answering your message," Nick responded with a laugh.

"Hahaha yeah, sounds kinda petty though," The Colonel said as an afterthought as he turned around to face Nick, getting his sonic screwdriver out, "You're ready to do this?"

"Yeah ready as I ever be facing an alien demon."

"Same here. I'm gonna go run out, call attention to the cosmic horror and just hope the horror has it out for the Doctor already. You stay and just listen to when I tell you to turn on the switch. I'll probably be yelling frantically."

"I wouldn't blame you Colonel haha," Nick said. He watched as he ran out immediately shouting. He had to admit it was pretty funny watching a(most likely)way older than him alien yelling like he had taken a couple of shots.

"Hey shadow demon! Look who is standing here like a big neon sign! It's the Doctor with a death wish! Come out and get me!" The Colonel shouted which just made Nick laugh a bit loud to himself For the next 5 to 10 minutes of watching the Colonel shouting into the sky with nothing seemed to be happening. Nick thought this plan might be a bust until he could've sworn he saw two red eyes suddenly blinking in the shadow of a tree in the distance.

Maybe their little plan is working after all Nick thought as he felt adrenaline running through his body again. This time he was sober as one can be now so he felt more focus with his hand near the switch ready to be called into action. He was also concert for the Colonel, sure he only knew him a short time but he seemed like a cool guy and he didn't want him to get hurt. He didn't really want anyone to get hurt by this alien demon thing.

He may think of several people he encountered in his life to say "go to hell" but he would never wish death on anyone.

Nick kept his gaze between the spot and his new friend who was standing still cautiously quiet by now. The Colonel took a few steps back slowly without breaking eye contact with the cosmic horror. Look like their assumption is plausible at the least, either had a thing against the Doctor or just here out of curiosity by all the noise. Either way the favor is in their court and that's all they both care about at this moment.

"Nick now!" The Colonel shouted and he rightfully took the sudden command as a cue to switch the light on as the Colonel jumped out of the way to the side and rolled out of the spotlight's path. Both Nick and the Colonel had to shield their eyes from the really bright light, but could tell it was probably working due to the anguished screeching the shadow demon made as it vaporized to nothing but a wisp of smoke.

After a few seconds of silence they both looked up to check if it did actually work followed by a shared overjoyed laugh to find that yes, they just saved the Earth from doom. That was a good enough reason to celebrate. Well after the whole robot that is.

"Dude we did it! I can't believe I actually saved the planet!" Nick exclaimed with a happy laugh as he ran up to the Colonel.

"And I can't believe that actually freaking worked!" The Colonel laughed, "I can imagine the look on the Doctor's face if he knew we defeated an alien monster by taking advantage of the fact that some beings don't like him."

"Yeah."

"All that's left is the robots, and then we can celebrate and get drunk."

"I'll like that. I would also offer to pay for the drinks but I just got laid off and don't have much spare money." Nick explained apologetically as the two walked over to take the spotlight back into the Tardis.

"Really?" Well uhh, tell you what you seem like a cool dude. Why don't you work for me at the Jump Room." The Colonel suggested and Nick felt his like turning around finally into his favor at the offer.

"I would love that! That would be a lot of help, thanks!"


End file.
